abstract theory Archives - Infographics Showcase

Tag: abstract theory

The McFly Time Travel Sports Scheme

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Every so often it’s a good idea to take a break from our more serious fare and showcase some infographics from the lighter side of town. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to do exactly what Biff Tannen did in the film Back the Future 2? I suppose a better question is, if you had a time machine, would you grab a sports almanac and go back in time to make yourself rich? Kind of an odd premise really. I mean, wouldn’t it be just as easy to go back in time without a sports book and make yourself rich by playing the stock market. It would be less suspicious then placing a thousand sports bets in a month and getting all one thousand of them correct. I have to imagine that if what happened in Back to the Future happened in reality, people would immediately assume that games were being thrown. They wouldn’t just throw their hands up and go, “This is amazing! This Biff Tannen guy is a genius! And he’s one of the most powerful people on the planet now! Yay!”

If I were to nitpick the plan presented in this graphic, I would point out that, in the movies, Doc Brown always had a stash of the money from the era that he and Marty were time-traveling to. So, the scenario presented in this graphic, where said person is punched by a 1950’s bookie for having what looks like play-money, would not occur if said person dipped into the Doc’s stash beforehand. In all honesty, the get-rich-with-a-sports-almanac-plan works best the way that Biff did it in the movie. You don’t go back in time with the book and try to get rich yourself. You give the the book to a younger version of yourself and tell him to get rich. This plan is the most logical..uh…I think.

Just because this graphic is comical doesn’t make it immune from the grading portion.

Design: A

Great job by the artist. This graphic is well-made and holds your attention all the way through.

Content: A-

Funny moments, and overall, an outstanding concept. Although I might be biased toward the content as an 80’s movie buff. I would have given it an A without the minus, but I was sort of waiting for that one hilarious punchline that was going to make me spit my prune juice out. Never happened.

Graphic provided by NFLinjury.com

Is Cannabis Treated Unfairly Infographic

Yes, that debate again. The one about a substance called…marijuana. Just how much does marijuana hurt society, lead to widespread panic, cause the erosion of brain cells etc. etc.? It’s a debate that never gets old, as long as cannabis remains illegal in most jurisdictions. This infographic puts a unique spin on the issue by examining it from a “fairness standpoint” in regards to how it’s classified as a drug.

According to the graphic, a 2007 UK study suggested that the way we classify drugs is currently flawed because alcohol is mare dangerous than cannabis based on both the U.S. and U.K. drug scales, yet alcohol is legal while cannabis is not. There also seems to be a disproportionate number of cannabis-related arrests compared to other drug related arrests. A 2008 drug arrest pie chart shows that marijuana arrests carry quite a bit of the load. In fact, they carry half the load. 50% of drug arrests were cannabis related.

Now, you’ll probably find this to be unusual: There were zero deaths from marijuana last year. By contrast, there were 435,000 deaths from tobacco and 85,000 from alcohol. I did not know that, if I may dig up Johnny Carson’s corpse for a moment and channel him. I really would have guessed that there would have been at least one death from cannabis last year since it’s, you know, illegal and all. But I guess not. Now, let’s delve into the grading segment. Caution: serious issues ahead.

Design: D+

The design of this infographic fails on many fronts. In a word, it’s boring, and I’m being kind. It also has no flow. The one bright spot is that the images aren’t stock ones pulled from somewhere: the art does seem to be original. But what good is original art when it’s plain and uninteresting?

Content: C-

The problems here are many-layered as well. Let’s talk about a specific detail. The information regarding the annual rate of death is vague. I assume it was from last year, but I do not know, and the graphic does not tell me. Off hand, I reject it as being false, but again, I have no way of knowing for sure if the information is accurate or not because I do not know what year it is referring to, nor do I know what the exact source of the information is. The graphic cites 5 different places as the source for that statistic without mentioning a specific URL where I can find it. I think anyone reading this graphic would expect such a bold stat like that to be backed up by something more concrete.

Overall, this graphic leaves much to be desired and allowing us to review it was a risk on the part of creator. I have a feeling that if Simon Cowell was asked to review it, he would call it “dreadful.”

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Education By the Numbers Infographic

Microsoft Education has created a beautiful infographic to display raw numbers on various elements of education in America. The graphic really exposes the imbalance in many areas. For instance, there are 1.23 billion students in pre-kindgergarten to high school and only 170 million students in higher education programs by contrast. That’s quite a disparity. To break that down into more detail, there are 35 million students in pre-kindgergarten through grade 8 and 14.8 million in grades 9 to 12. Now, here’s where it gets interesting; there are 18.5 million students in higher education, meaning that there are actually more people in higher education than there are in grades 9 to 12.

Here’s an interesting tidbit: there are 5.8 million students in private school and 3.3 million public school teachers. That means that there are almost as many students in private school as there are teachers in public school. Hard to believe that one. There are more women than men in colleges (not surprising given that there are more women in the population overall), and in 2008, women earned only 18% of all computer science degrees, keeping the stereotype alive.e are 1.23 billion students in pre-kindgergarten to high school. This means of course that the largest chunk of students are in the pre-k to 8th grade bracket, and this is tilting the scale tremendously.

The bottom of the graphic plugs Microsoft office. It notes that each year, Americans through away enough office paper and products to build a 12 foot wall from New York to California. And this is the reason, argues the graphic, that people should go “completely green” and switch to Microsoft OneNote, a digital notebook available in Microsoft office 2010 or for free via Office Web Apps.

Now, for my favorite section, the grading section.

Design: B

This infographic surely delivers. It is unique, and displays the information in a well-organized manner. Definitely the type of infographic that you would want to add to any collection of top-tier infographics.

Content: B+

Even though the content was basically just data, Microsoft found a way to make it captivating, and they threw in a few interesting facts, namely the fact that every year Americans dispose of enough paper garbage to build a 12 foot wall from New York to California.

Microsoft needs to be praised for a job well-done on this graphic.

Graphic courtesy of Microsoft.com.

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How Much Do We Really Recycle: Infographic

As this infographic confirms, we are, for lack of a better phrase, a “throw away” culture. That is, we do ridiculous things like dispose of seven and a half times our body weight each year. As expected, the above infographic makes a compelling case for recycling. It’s filled with tidbits that make you throw your hands up and say, “recycling is best!” That’s assuming you were on the fence of course. Most people know recycling is best; they just don’t do it out of laziness.

Some things about recycling you probably did not know but likely are not surprised by:
–Glass can be recycled over and over without ever losing its purity
–70% less energy is used to manufacture recycled paper
–The energy conserved from recycling one bottle can power a light bulb for one hour
–One recycled can of aluminum contains enough energy to power a Sony TV for three hours

Yes, there can be no argument. A world where more people recycle is the kind of world that most people should want to live in. I do have some issues with the “facts” presented at the bottom of the article though. The graphic claims that certain objects would take several thousand (or in some cases, several million) years to decompose. A Styrofoam cup, for instance, supposedly would not decompose until the year 7,500,000,000 A.D. Really? I have a hard time believing this. If you threw a Styrofoam cup in the woods, you’re telling me it would really take over a billion years for it to erode? I doubt that. What would happen in reality is that maggots and ants would eventually get on it, and it would begin to break down. When you combine the effects of animals with other elements of nature, such as rain and acid rain, the abstract theory that it would take billions of years for the cup to break down becomes even more implausible.

My basic philosophy is this: I’m all for recycling, but don’t try to scare me with inane claims about how long it takes for objects to decompose in a non-controlled, natural environment.

Infographics Scorecard

Design: B

The design meshes several elements well, and the bottom of the graphic is very aesthetically pleasing due to its use of objects. Certain elements of the graphic are patchy though. The “Total Individual Lifetime Disposal” circle is not necessarily easy to understand at first glance. It bogs down a bit. That portion of the graphic could have been handled better.

Content: B+

The content is well-presented, and for the most part, in an easy-to-understand way. I would have awarded a higher grade, but as I explained earlier, I’m not buying the creator’s argument that it would take thousands and thousands of years for plastic jugs and glass bottles to decompose. The Styrofoam cup theory makes even less sense when you factor in the temperature changes of the planet. Think about how hot the planet will be in 7 billion years.

Overall, this graphic is very well-done but has some room for improvement.

This graphic was provided by the fine folks at recycle.co.uk

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